After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 571 Funeral
Two days later, Haijiao and Haitang received the news that Old Lady Jin Er had died in the government prison.

Aunt Jin cried and wrapped up her mother overnight and carried her out of the government prison. She had already bought a cheap thin coffin from the coffin shop that the head of the prison had introduced to her. She didn't have new shrouds, so she picked out the most decent clothes from the luggage that Old Lady Jin brought with her and put them on for her mother. As for the remaining old clothes, she pawned all that could be pawned, and the money was used as her living expenses and travel expenses. Those that could not be pawned were burned in front of the coffin, so that they could be taken with her.

She did not take the coffin back to the rented house, but instead sent it directly to a nunnery after leaving the prison. The female prison head also introduced it to her. It was close to the government prison and the fees were cheap. Prisoners who died in prison on weekdays, if they had no family members to collect the body, were basically taken here for disposal. There was a Buddhist temple next to the nunnery. The two families shared a backyard, which was specially used to store the deposited coffins. Monks and nuns were responsible for guarding and burning incense every day. If no one claimed the coffins for more than a year, they would be taken to the mass grave outside the city for burial.

Given the family background of the Jin family, Aunt Jin originally looked down on this kind of place and thought that her mother should at least find a better place, but the words of the female prison boss convinced her.

Her cousin Jin Jiashu has already made it clear that he will not give her more money. At most, he will only cover her travel expenses to return home and the money to hire guards to escort her. So the money she has now may be all her future savings. Although her sister and brother-in-law are still in her hometown, she doesn't know what the situation is like in her hometown. What if she has a hard time making a living after returning? She still needs to save more money to be safer. My mother is in a foreign land. As long as the coffin is acceptable, everything else is secondary. Even if the ceremony is grand, without children, grandchildren and relatives to support it, what's the point? Wouldn't it be more glorious to save money and hold a decent funeral in her hometown?
Aunt Jin actually had no intention of paying for the funeral, and was thinking that she could ask her younger sister to pay for it. Her two brothers had abandoned their mother, and her nephews and nieces had no filial piety. She had been stranded in a foreign land to take care of her seriously ill mother, and she had suffered so much for more than half a year. She thought that she had fulfilled her filial duty. Her younger sister was also the flesh and blood of the second branch of the Jin family, so could she just stand by and watch? Naturally, she should also do her part, which was the principle of being a child.

If my sister doesn't even want to fulfill her filial duty, then I can only be buried hastily. Who told her to favor her two sons the most when she was alive and not care about her daughters? Her two sons were not good enough and hurt me badly. They didn't even show up when she died. In this case, what should I do with my daughters? She can only accept it. Can she really expect her married daughters to wear mourning for her? !

Aunt Jin cried and complained all the time. She hurriedly sent her mother's coffin to the nunnery, left a few taels of silver for the old nuns in the nunnery to take care of it, and went back to her rented house to clean up, change out of the mourning clothes she had just put on, took off the white flower on her hair, dressed as usual, and carried a small bag to go to work in the Thirteenth Room of the Zhou family.

She has signed a contract with Ma, the youngest daughter-in-law of the Thirteenth Branch of the Zhou Family, and will help take care of the two most mischievous boys in the Thirteenth Branch until the beginning of next spring. After the beginning of spring, the two boys will be sent to their father's place in the border town, and live with their father stationed at the border and their newly married stepmother, so that the old lady and Ma of the Thirteenth Branch will no longer have to worry about them. By then, Aunt Jin can leave with the reward of twelve taels of silver. She doesn't have to ask about the affairs of the pregnant woman Ma at all. Ma has her own maids and old women to serve her, and her mother from her natal family will rush back to Chang'an from other places to take care of her next spring. She is purely worried that she will not be able to take care of the two little boys left by her illegitimate second uncle when she is pregnant, so she has to hire someone else.

Aunt Jin moved into the 13th room of the Zhou family, where she lived comfortably and had decent food and drink. Although the two little boys were really naughty, it was nothing compared to the difficulty she had in taking care of her younger brother Jin Miao. She felt completely at ease, and became more and more grateful for the advice given by the female prison boss. She was thinking that when she had a day off, she would ask her employer for a few taels of salary in advance and buy a generous gift to thank the female prison boss.

When Jin Jiashu heard the news from Aunt Jin, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He knew that this matter could not be hidden from Ma Shangyi. On the day when Aunt Jin just entered the thirteenth room of the Zhou family, Ma sent someone to deliver something to her aunt Ma Shangyi. The errand girl was a chatterbox, and she would tell everything Ma Shangyi asked her. Before Zhou Xiaojian brought the news back to Jin Jiashu, the latter had actually heard the news about Aunt Jin at home. Ma Shangyi didn't say anything about it, so he guessed that the life of this cousin aunt should be saved for the time being.

Then, a few days later, he heard another piece of news from Zhou Xiaojian. The prefect of Yunyang wrote to the prefect of Chang'an, informing him of a robbery and murder case. It mentioned that a civilian surnamed Jin was robbed by bandits in Yunyang. Because they refused to hand over the silver, they were hacked to death by the bandits. Their son escaped and went to the city to report to the officials. Unfortunately, when the officers and soldiers arrived, they could no longer see the bandits, and only found the bodies of his parents. Later, in order to bury his parents, the young man sold himself to a local butcher as a child son-in-law. However, when the butcher reported to the government, the local officials found that the young man and his parents did not have a pass, and seemed to have fled to Yunyang privately. After questioning, they found out that they had come from Chang'an Prefecture, but they were hesitant and unwilling to tell the truth about their ancestral home. Suspecting that there was something wrong with his identity, they wrote to the prefect of Chang'an to inquire about it.

The prefect of Chang'an found out that it was Jin Xin's family without much effort, and notified Jin Dagu and Jin Jiashu separately. Jin Jiashu said nothing, but expressed regret; Jin Dagu cried behind her employer's back, and that was it.

No one planned to go to Yunyang to do anything. Jin Wu had already taken care of his parents' funeral, so why should they worry about it? Even if they had to carry the coffin back home, it was Jin Wu's own business. When the three of them left their relatives behind, they never thought about family affection. Now, Aunt Jin naturally wouldn't think about family affection, and she didn't have the leisure to think about family affection. She had to deal with two naughty young masters and worry about whether her wages would be deducted when she left the thirteenth branch of the Zhou family. All her energy had been consumed. How could she care about others?
Anyway, Jin Wu is still alive, isn't he? The incense left by Jin Xin and his wife is taken care of by their beloved son. As for whether Jin Wu has become a live-in son-in-law... it is not her turn as an aunt who has married and returned home to speak. If the elders of the second branch of the Jin family want to blame him, it should be Jin Miao who comes forward. But Jin Miao is still on the road to exile!

Aunt Jin thought of the bad things she had done in the capital and secretly breathed a sigh of relief for Jin Liu's death. Then she was distracted by the quarrel between the two boys from her employer's family and resigned herself to following them again to clean up the mess.

(End of this chapter)